'Economically illiterate' Brown taunted by Tories over NI 'war' with business leaders

Gordon Brown was branded 'economically illiterate' by business leaders tonight after another 30 bosses backed Tory plans to curb the Government's National Insurance hike.

Executives reacted with fury after the Prime Minister suggested they had been 'deceived' over the Conservative proposal not to enforce the tax increase in full if they win power.

The row dominated the first full day of campaigning as David Cameron taunted Mr Brown at a ferocious final PMQs before polling day, insisting his plans will 'wreck' the economic recovery.

The Tory leader then raced to visit businesses in key marginals as he sought to ram home his message over Labour's 'tax on jobs'.

New firms now backing the Tories include Corus, Travelodge and Fujitsu. They take the total number to 68, who altogether employ 850,000 people.

They angrily deny they have been duped but the Prime Minister was defiant in the Commons, insisting Tory plans were reckless and could spark a double dip recession.

He insisted taking £6billion out of the economy by cutting NI contributions was impossible without harming public services, laying this out as a clear choice between the two main parties.

Clash: Gordon Brown and David Cameron at the final Prime Minister's Questions before polling day

Luke Johnson, founder of Risk
Capital Partners who today signed up to the Tory pledge, dismissed this
argument as 'economically illiterate' and condemned Mr Brown's words as
'insulting'.

'I think businesses know very well what's
going to encourage them to employ more people. And
what will encourage them to employ more people is to reduce the stealth
tax - which national insurance is - on jobs,' he said.

Labour have taken a calculated risk that they can shore up votes by promising to protect frontline services while painting the Tories as the same old party who will spend less to fund tax cuts.

The
move risks completely alienating the business community and is another
sign of how far the party has shifted under Gordon Brown in comparison
to Tony Blair.

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The Tories, who are
characterising the election as a choice between hope and fear, see
their pledge to save middle earners £300 a year by blocking Labour's
rise as their election trump card.

Every major business group and bosses from a huge variety of top firms have already backed the plan. Labour was condemned as 'patronising' last week for claiming they had been duped.

At PMQs, Mr Cameron asked the Prime Minister: 'Are you really telling us that you know more about job creation than business leaders who employ almost a million people in this country?'

He read out comments from Diageo chief Paul Walsh - prompting MPs from the opposite bench to shout 'Tory'. But he quickly countered: 'No, not a Tory - one of his advisors. He's probably a Tory now - so are half the country.'

Mr Walsh sits on the Business Council for Britain, a team of advisors hand-picked by Gordon Brown in one of his first moves on become PM.

Mr Cameron said: 'This Prime Minister would wreck the recovery by putting a tax on every job, on everyone earning over £20,000, a tax on aspiration, a tax on every business in this country. This government would wreck the recovery.'

Frenetic: Gordon Brown this afternoon before making a speech about electoral reform

The Commons descended into total
uproar, drowning out Mr Brown's response. Quoting a line Mr Cameron
used about Tony Blair once, he then said: 'To think he was the future
once.'

Mr Brown said there
was a 'clear choice' between putting up National Insurance and
protecting schools, hospitals and policing or not increasing it and
putting those vital services at risk.

'We
cannot cut our way to recovery. That's why to withdraw £6million from
the economy now is the wrong thing to do. The Conservative policies
would put jobs at risk immediately, businesses at risk immediately and
would put growth at risk immediately..' he said.

'The
public must make up their mind. Do they want the public services
maintained or do they want the traditional Tory policy of putting our
public services at risk?'

NO HAT FOR CAMERON

With an election looming, David Cameron can be forgiven for wanting to keep a clear head which perhaps explains why he did not wear a helmet as he cycled into Westminster today.

He was concerned about safety enough to wear a high-visibility belt but his helmet was left dangling from the handlebars.

In contrast, his two security guards both had theirs firmly on their heads as they peddled to the Commons.

Safety campaigners rounded on the omission, insisting he should be setting an example to the public - particularly during such a high-profile election campaign.

Luke Griggs, from the charity Headway, which helps brain injury, said they were 'deeply disappointed.'

'Brain injury can happen at any moment - all it takes is just one fall and you will regret it for the rest of your life,' he said.

A Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents spokesman said: 'We encourage cyclists to wear helmets, obviously it is not the law, at the end of the day it is personal choice. But we do encourage people to wear helmets.'

Both Labour and the Tories were
visiting businesses today to spread their contrasting messages that
only they can secure the burgeoning recovery.

Mr Brown visited firms including
Innocent, the smoothie manufacturers, in west London this morning and Mr Cameron flew straight from PMQs up to Bolton where he dropped in on Warburton's bakery.

Executive director Richard Warburton was among the first tranche of business leaders to endorse the Tory plans.

As he arrived, Mr Cameron said: 'Today, another 30 business leaders have come out in support of stopping Labour's National Insurance increase. The momentum is building against Gordon Brown's job tax.'

He later added: 'It will be an economic killer, a recovery killer, a jobs killer and I say that we have got to stop it.'

The bakery lies in the Bolton North east constituency, which is one of the key marginals the Tories must win if they are to seize power. Incumbent David Crausby for Labour has a notional majority of 4,527 thanks to boundary changes and it would take a swing of 6 per cent to turn it blue on election night.

Bolton West next door, where former minister Ruth Kelly is stepping down, will also be a major battleground.

Mr Cameron will fly on to Cardiff tonight. The Tory leader
is aiming to visit at least two regions every day - helped by the
service of a private plane which the Tories can afford thanks to a
bulging war chest in comparison to cash-strapped Labour.

Media following him on the campaign trail have been given a tongue-in-cheek goodie bag including items such as berocca vitamin tablets and chocolate to keep them going, in recognition of the frenetic pace he is adopting.

The Prime Minister ensured National Insurance dominated the first day's campaigning by telling GMTV this morning: 'I think they [businesses] have been deceived. The big issue is: Can we sustain the economy?...
Britain is on the road to recovery. Don't put that at risk.'

His intervention came despite huge anger among industry chiefs last week at ministers' suggestion they had been duped, and it immediately sparked a fresh assault today.

John Lovering, from the
Mitchells & Butlers pub group, said: 'We are quite clear that we
have not been fooled.'

New companies now backing the Tories also include House of Fraser, LK Bennett and Ocado. Steel giant has warned it will not be able to pursue plans to recruit 250 more staff if the hike goes ahead.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne, who first outlined the Tory plans last Monday, claimed Mr Brown had now 'declared war' on British businesses.

'For the first time he has said that
business leaders have been “deceived” into opposing Labour’s jobs tax.
When Peter Mandelson made the same accusation, they reacted with
understandable anger,' he said.

'This is a highly significant moment
which proves that Gordon Brown is on the wrong side of British business
and working people who know that Labour’s jobs tax will put the
recovery at risk.'

No 'what-if politics': Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg at the Work Foundation in central London this morning

Labour seem intent on
using the tax plan as part of a wider attempt to show the Tory party
has not really changed under Mr Cameron and are still 'Thatcherite' at
their core.

Lord Mandelson, in a speech this morning, insisted Tory economic plans would 'imperil a still fragile
recovery' and force huge cuts in public services.

He warned their approach could
'casually put at risk' homes and hopes in Middle England as he argued
they lacked vital experience.

'For them it’s the old Tory mantra -
cut taxes, whatever the consequences for the deficit, whatever the
implications in public spending, and that’s the way to secure growth,'
he said.

'In
some ways it’s understandable. At their age, David Cameron and George
Osborne have spent their whole adult lives in the most ideological Tory
party in history.'

He
claimed the party had produced 'no change, just confusion'. 'Cut the
debt or cut taxes? Preserve frontline serves or…. uncosted tax cuts?
Are they telling us what they believe? Or what they think we want to
hear?

'When they
seek to bribe with one hand, ask what they want to tax or cut with the
other. What happened to their boasts about sending clear signals to the
markets? What happened to "tough medicine" in an "age of austerity".

'You
don't know where you stand with the Conservatives. Except… you do
because we’ve been there before. And that’s why they pose a clear and
present danger to Britain’s fragile economic recovery. Because the new
Tory growth plan sounds a lot like every old Tory growth plan.

'The same Thatcherite mantras of a smaller state and lower taxes that Britain rejected in 1997 and 2001 and 2005.

'A
bit like the briefcase, David Cameron’s ideological baggage turned out
to be following along behind in his car. It was all about the angle of
the photograph…or how you airbrushed it.'

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General Election 2010: Brown reignites National Insurance row by insisting business chiefs have been 'deceived'